Research Computing Security Architect

Research Computing Security Architect

Job Summary

The University of Utah's Center for High Performance Computing
(CHPC) is seeking a highly skilled Research Computing Security
Architect to lead the technical vision, strategic design, and
overarching security architecture for its high-performance
computing (HPC) environments. This role is critical to enabling
research by designing resilient, scalable systems that align with
NIST SP 800-171 Revision 3 and other federal cybersecurity
standards. Reporting to the head of the Security and Compliance
(S&C) team, the Architect will serve as CHPC's security
architecture lead, working closely with other S&C team members,
other CHPC teams who are responsible for systems implementation and
operations, and with other institutional security and compliance
teams to bridge the gap between technical reality and institutional
governance.

Learn more about the great benefits of working for
University of Utah: benefits.utah.edu

The department may choose to hire at any of the below job
levels and associated pay rates based on their business need and
budget.

Responsibilities

Architecture & Technical Strategy

• Develop and own the comprehensive security architecture and

technical roadmap for HPC systems supporting regulated
research.

• Define reusable security patterns for Linux-based HPC clusters,

workload schedulers, containers, shared storage, high-speed
networks, data-transfer services, virtualization, cloud resources,
and interactive research-access services to satisfy NIST SP 800-171
Rev. 3, CMMC, and other federal cybersecurity standards.

• Collaborate with CHPC monitoring specialists and infrastructure

teams to define logging, telemetry, detection, logging, detection,
and incident response capabilities, including required data
sources, integrations, retention, alerting, and validation
criteria.

• Lead architectural threat modeling exercises, evaluating

complex system designs against potential attack vectors to ensure
security is embedded by design prior to deployment.

Cross-Team Leadership & Communication

• Ability to lead technical design reviews and influence

cross-functional teams without direct supervisory authority.

• Serve as a liaison by communicating complex architectural

risks, tradeoffs, dependencies, and recommendations to technical
and nontechnical audiences.

• Evaluate and select emerging security tools, platforms, and

secure data transfer protocols to continuously modernize the HPC
security posture.

Security Architecture Assurance & Compliance
Partnership

• Partner with the internal Governance, Risk, and Compliance

(GRC) team and compliance analysts to map regulatory and
contractual requirements to technical architecture, implementation
requirements, and validation criteria.

• Develop and maintain architecture diagrams, technical

specifications, trust-boundary documentation, data-flow models, and
security design records that support institutional compliance
efforts.

• Validate that deployed environments align with approved

security designs and document material deviations, compensating
controls, and residual risks.

• Serve as the technical Subject Matter Expert (SME) during

assessments while compliance personnel retain responsibility for
SSP management, evidence coordination, audit administration, and
POA&M tracking.

• Lead architectural threat modeling exercises, evaluating

complex system designs against potential attack vectors to ensure
security is embedded by design prior to deployment.

Cross-Team Leadership & Communication

• Ability to lead technical design reviews and influence

cross-functional teams without direct supervisory authority.

• Serve as a liaison by communicating complex architectural

risks, tradeoffs, dependencies, and recommendations to technical
and nontechnical audiences.

• Evaluate and select emerging security tools, platforms, and

secure data transfer protocols to continuously modernize the HPC
security posture.

Security Architecture Assurance & Compliance
Partnership

• Partner with the internal Governance, Risk, and Compliance

(GRC) team and compliance analysts to map regulatory and
contractual requirements to technical architecture, implementation
requirements, and validation criteria.

• Develop and maintain architecture diagrams, technical

specifications, trust-boundary documentation, data-flow models, and
security design records that support institutional compliance
efforts.

• Validate that deployed environments align with approved

security designs and document material deviations, compensating
controls, and residual risks.

• Serve as the technical Subject Matter Expert (SME) during

assessments while compliance personnel retain responsibility for
SSP management, evidence coordination, audit administration, and
POA&M tracking.

Minimum Qualifications

EQUIVALENCY STATEMENT: 1 year of higher education
can be substituted for 1 year of directly related work experience
(Example: bachelor's degree = 4 years of directly related work
experience).

Department may hire employee at one of the following job
levels:

Information Security Architect, III: Requires a
bachelor's (or equivalency) + 6 years or a master's (or
equivalency) + 4 years of directly related work experience.

Information Security Architect, IV: Requires a
bachelor's (or equivalency) + 8 years or a master's (or
equivalency) + 6 years of directly related work experience.

Information Security Architect, V: Requires a
bachelor's (or equivalency) + 10 years or a master's (or
equivalency) + 8 years of directly related work experience.

• Proven ability to translate federal cybersecurity standards

(such as NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 and CMMC) into architectural
blueprints and control patterns.

• Deep understanding of Linux-based operating systems,

distributed computing, virtualization platforms, and HPC-oriented
secure container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker).

• Demonstrated experience evaluating, selecting, and designing

large-scale security capabilities, including centralized logging
and SIEM, vulnerability and configuration management, network
security, and host-based monitoring or EDR where technically
appropriate.

• Strong understanding of infrastructure-as-code (IaC) and

automation frameworks to guide engineering deployment.

Preferences

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Security,

Cybersecurity, Computer Engineering, or a related technical
field.

• Active professional architecture certifications (e.g.,

CISSP-ISSAP, GDSA, CompTIA SecurityX, or vendor-specific enterprise
architecture credentials).

• Prior experience designing security architectures for

high-performance computing (HPC) environments or high-throughput
research networks.

• Concrete experience operating within higher education,

government, or defense research environments requiring strict data
classification, identity, segmentation, least privilege, device or
workload trust, and continuous validation.

Special Instructions

Requisition Number: PRN46654B

Full Time or Part Time? Full Time

Work Schedule Summary: Monday – Friday 8am-5pm

Department: 00640 - CHPC Ctr for High Perform
Computing

Location: Campus

Pay Rate Range: $58,292 - $150,375

Close Date: 01/29/2027

Open Until Filled:

To apply, visit https://utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/211652

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